saadware

Desktop App Reversal

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:38:00 -0700

Even though web applications are taking over the world, I’m still a fan of the native desktop application. They provide an authentic look/feel to the operating system that makes me feel special. While most of the native apps I use are developer tools, I also regularly use the following on both Windows 7 and Mac OS X:

Evernote
Rdio
Skype

It’s been my opinion that the PC version has always had a better experience when it came to native apps. However, I cannot say that for Evernote and Rdio. These applications are much better from a usability standpoint on the Mac. Skype is still an absolute disgrace on the Mac (comparatively to the PC version).

So why is it that 66% (yes I know… I have mass amounts of data for my study) of the applications I use have better Mac versions? As a programmer ten years ago, you built applications for the platform you most commonly used. Has anything changed? Probably… depending on how you look at it.

I would bet that programmers are still developing for and on the platform they most commonly use day-to-day. They are developing on the system that makes them feel special. However, I also guess many that were developing for the PC ten years ago may also be developing for multiple platforms now, like the Mac. Are they using a Mac at home too? Have they made a switch? Does your dog really know what your name is?

Are you paying attention? No? Well let me bring it back full circle.

All of this doesn’t much matter as in a few years we’ll all be developing off of machines that run in clouds that serve up rainbow lollypop browser versions of an IDE so we can program in a 6th order language.

For craps sake man. Wake up.

“I hate reading other people’s code.” Found...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:13:30 -0700

“I hate reading other people’s code.”

Found this amusing and somewhat true. For me, I enjoy reading other people’s code because I tend to learn what’s good and what’s bad. Helps me steer my own future development.

p4 grove

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:38:00 -0700

If you are using the hot new grove.io irc service for your development team chatter and also use Perforce, then tune in. Using the grove.io API, I’ve written a script to publish change commit notifications to an irc channel, kicked off by a Perforce Trigger.

The script is written in Python (one of my first adventures in the language so be gentle) and requires the P4Python hooks to be present.

README and Fork It

Lunch Ride with THE Dude on Flickr. It was a brisk Fall ride,...

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:01:40 -0700

Lunch Ride with THE Dude on Flickr.

It was a brisk Fall ride, but we hung in there. He had his pretzels, I had my water. He had his blanket, I had an extra 50 pounds to tote. It was excellent.

We started out heading up the canyon but only got a few miles in when we were stopped by icy conditions. I therefore turned the ship around and headed North where I could still hit a few good climbs.

He seemed to enjoy the time. I know I did.

Kernel Panic! I have no idea what caused such a fuss on the mac...

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:21:10 -0600

Kernel Panic!

I have no idea what caused such a fuss on the mac tonight. It was very irksome as it felt like somebody was slowing pulling a digital blind down over the screen, followed by this lovely dialog.

Dennis Ritchie (dmr) has passed

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:39:00 -0600

Dennis Ritchie (dmr) has passed:

Two things I grew up learning/using:

UNIX
C

Thank you for your contributions. They have formed a rock solid foundation for my technical skills.

Boards of Canada One of my all time fav’s. Also very happy...

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:16:56 -0600

Boards of Canada

One of my all time fav’s. Also very happy these guys recently shows up on rdio.com as I’ve been waiting since the early beta for that to happen.

Joyous times.

The Drama

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 23:31:34 -0600

Dreaming.

This means something.

I’m part of an audience, watching horror unfold.

The crowd claps at acts I find repulsive.

What is happening?

What just happened?

More cheers, more unthinkable acts.

I don’t know if this is OK.

Is this OK?

Why do I feel so uneasy?

This is life.

Somebody stop this guy!

Why is everyone else calm?

I need to realize.

Wakeup.

This is just a dream.

Is this life?

Relax, it will all be over in time.

Breath.

Code Commenting

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 08:46:14 -0600

Coder 1: Hey there! Noticed you commented out some code with your recent checkin.

Coder 2: Yes, the code was ancient and not even being used anymore. I whacked it!

Coder 1: Well, you commented it out and then added your own comment about why you commented it out.

Coder 2: Yes…?

Coder 1: …

Coder 2: What?

Coder 1: Why didn’t you just delete the old code and be done?

Coder 2: Then the future maintainers of it wouldn’t realize what I had done.

Coder 1: But we’re using source control management… history is preserved for you!

Coder 2: I know, but how would they really know? You know?

Coder 1: …

My Early Computing

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:31:45 -0600

Recently I was reminded about some of my early computing adventures. While my earliest memories were that of playing games on an my neighbor’s Apple IIe, most of my early adolescence was spent in front of an unknown AT&T PC running DOS. No, I don’t remember specifics on hardware or OS version.

Countless hours wer spent just messing with the thing, from both the hardware and software side. I would break it to the point where it no longer would boot, attempt to fix, fail at that, call technical support to get it fixed. It’s easy to say that I had no idea what I was doing, but enjoyed it. Pure exploration… one of the few things in my early life that I did explore outside of sports.

Athletics dominated the majority of my extra curricular activities growing up and it wasn’t until 10th grade when I embarked upon my first programming class. Sports and general studies came easy to me. Programming, I had to work at. I had to bend my mind in ways to make the computer do things I wasn’t sure how it might go about doing. I literally would spend hours trying to wrap my head around loops so that I could alternate the red and white stripes of the American flag as I flailed to draw it to the screen.

Programming was fun but wasn’t something I dedicated too much time to outside of class. However, it perked enough interest for me to apply to the Computer Science Department at the University of Colorado. I remember looking down a list of possible areas of study when applying and seeing the words “computer” and “science” and then thinking to myself, “Hey, I like computers… and science is pretty cool!”

I honestly had no clue what I was getting myself into at the time. The thought of using programming to solve scientific problems didn’t even cross my mind. Yes, naive is an understatement. All I knew is that I wanted to do something with computers. That was it. The rest I would figure out when I got there.

Spread

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:47:24 -0600

Things come up.

Everyday, they come up.

It never stops.

How many should I direct my attention toward?

Which ones to ignore?

Which ones are worth my time?

If I try and take them all on I hurt.

I feel spread.

When spread, I cannot focus.

When I cannot focus I feel less content.

I feel like there has to be something else.

Something else to put my attention on.

Will it bring me happiness?

I don’t know.

Spreading is not working.

Naturally, I feel down.

Time to reinvent.

Moleskine - Hacker Tool?

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:52:02 -0700

I used to be a huge fan of my Moleskine. I still am, but I guess I used to be a huger fan?

Apparently some like minded geeks feel it’s an important tool. My main complaint is that I cannot read my chicken scratch handwriting and have therefore opted to use the Evernote service (paid subscriber) for a lot of my day-to-day thought captures.

However, I do still use my notebook in low-tech scenarios when a lot of my creative thinking seems to be done… away from computers/devices.

Remote PowerShell

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 09:03:23 -0700

Let me start off by saying I’m just a another software developer that likes to get the most out of his tools/platform. Therefore, when I’m developing on a Windows platform I never leave home without PowerShell. It’s so ridiculously delicious sometimes I slap myself in disbelief. With PowerShell v2 there were many improvements to an already excellent v1. One of which was Remote Commands using Sessions.

With this post, I’m definitely not going to go into details about Sessions as I really don’t get down that way. I’m also not here to convince anyone to use PowerShell, even if it’s the best shell I’ve come across on any platform. This post is simply being done to call attention to the PowerShell community leaders. You have an ace in your hand here and I’m not sure why people like me don’t know about it.

I use PowerShell for many development related task, many of which reside on remote machines. Since, for the most part Windows lacks a native remote shell environment (telnet, ssh, etc), I usually would terminal into the machine I needed to perform some tasks on, open up PowerShell and be one my way. This worked fine for the most part, but a developer can wish for more. What I really wanted was to be able to open up a telnet like session and run my commands.

I recently found that there is something similar. While it’s not a full on command terminal session (telnet) it is pretty darn useful and will help with a majority of the tasks I perform on remote machines.

Enter-PSSession - Starts an interactive session with a remote computer.

This translates to giving you an interactive prompt on the remote machine. Priceless!

I recognize that as a developer I might be a minority of the PowerShell user base and would imagine the IT crowd is the majority. This could also be a case where I just missed the boat and the vast majority of the community already knows (AND uses) these Remote Sessions. I’m OK with that and thankful that I finally stumbled upon them as they will prove to save me many hours of work.

However, if this is the case where there might be more people like me out there that are oblivious to Remote Commands, I think the evangelists have an opportunity to fill that potential void, resulting in a happier, more productive kid with a toy.

Wish -> I cannot seem to run an editor like vim in the session to edit files on the remote machine). This would be double awesome if made possible.

Back From Inner Space

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:47:53 -0700

I’ve taken a good break from many online interactions (blogging, twitter, etc). It’s been a nice interruption indeed as I found it has truly helped me refocus.

This wasn’t the first time I’ve done this and it probably won’t be the last. Each time I do it, something new is learned about where distractions live for me; the net gains of participating in these games; how my priorities need to shift to meet my objectives.

When taking such extended breaks from my twitter stream, I’ve been asked if it’s because I don’t like it. I do like it. I find it very entertaining! However, up to this point that’s all I’ve realized. It’s another form of entertainment. That in itself has value but has to be equally weighed against the more pressing things in my life, whatever those might be at a given time.

As we know, our time is finite and for me twitter has a cost. For example, I tend to obsess about how I write something: delivery, humor, seriousness, thoughtfulness, geek value, etc. This obsession takes time, but I do enjoy doing it. It’s just that my priorities need to be better kept in check as I don’t gain anything from it, regardless of how I try to spin it to myself.

So… until next time I introvert… I’m back!

Many industries still trying to transfer the...

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 21:55:51 -0600

Many industries still trying to transfer the “archives” to disc… this is just another one of those instances.

Me: Does this orange shirt match?

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:40:00 -0600

Me: Does this orange shirt match?
Daughter: It's a yellow shirt.
Me: What?!? You crazy!
Daughter: Seriously. It's yellow.
Me: Oh. Ok. I guess it doesn't match the brown shorts then?
Daughter: Green shorts.
Me: Right.

Panic Lie

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:00:00 -0600

A few days ago I had something amusing happen to me on my bike commute into work. Every now and then when stopped at traffic lights I’ll have the pleasure of talking to people that go out of their way to roll down a window to chit-chat. The conversation usually goes something something like:

Car: Hey, nice bike!

Me: Thanks!

Car: So you like to ride bikes huh?

Me: Yes, it’s pretty enjoyable.

Car: Sweet!

Me: Yes.

As you can see, there is not a lot of thought here. My brain pretty much turns into mush as I mindlessly answer some questions within a ten second engagement of dialog. On this particular day there was something about the situation that took me off guard. I’m still trying to figure out why it went down the way it did. The result was that I proceeded to make an uncontrollable lie which I will never be able to take back.

The first thing that was noticeably different about this experience was that I was not stopped at a traffic light but rather was in motion, on a one way street. The driver, who was in a convertible of some sort, slowed down a bit to get my attention. It went a little something like this:

Car: Hey, nice bike!

Me: Thanks!

Car: You like to ride!?!

Me: Yes!

Car: You riding in the Ride the Rockies?

Me: Yes!

Car (passing me, waving happily): Awesome! See you there!

I have no idea why I said yes to that question. I’m not riding in this organized event. At some point in my life I may consider it but not anytime soon.

Did I know the person? No.

Did I want to impress the person? I don’t know why if I did.

Why did I lie? The only logical reason I can think of is that I panicked because the question took me completely off guard and therefore I said the first thing that was in my line of next answers to come, “Yes!”

I don’t consider myself a pathological lier or even a casual one at that. However, catch me off guard while peddling a two wheeler and who knows what can happen. It’s just another friendly reminder that I’m not in control.

Learning New Languages

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 17:04:27 -0600

I always enjoy picking up a new programming language. There’s something about it that seems to turn on a different part of the brain that was lying dormant before. It seems to be another outlet for the exploration of creative problem solving. The problems remain the same, yet the approach changes a little bit.

With every new language it takes a while for the brain to adjust to the syntax. Once it does, then things become a bit more natural. As I start to figure out the basics of how certain structures and semantics are represented in the language, I’m able to apply similar techniques to the problem at hand. However, finding a good way to explore this has not always been a pleasant experience.

An effective way of learning a new language is something I’ve struggled with. I’ve always flailed here and there trying to create test projects to learn with. Most of the time I get so caught up in the details of what the project should be that the primary objective of learning the language takes a back seat. This has been very frustrating and counterproductive.

A year ago or so, I stumbled upon Project Euler, a site that has a series of challenging programming problems, many of which are mathematical in nature. This site is an amazing way to try out a new language because it forces one to explore the basic elements of the language, with a focused problem instead of a dreaded test project.

As a side, I’ve found that solving the problems in more than one language really helps bring to surface the differences between the languages. For instance, solving a long hand division problem will usually result in needing to store string representations along the way. If one were to try and use normal floating point operations on a problem like this, it would cause some type of overflow. Doing this in c/c++ can be somewhat a pain, but in python is trivial.

This has been my experience in picking up a new language and I would recommend the method to others if asked.

regular expression for primes

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:53:00 -0600

regular expression for primes:

A regular expression for testing primes? Does this really work? At first look, it’s super ugly but then the beauty of it starts to seep out once one realizes that it really works!

And the magic formula is…

/^1?$|^(11+?)\1+$/

slowing down single speed style

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 16:03:48 -0600

I’ve been riding the converted single speed mountain bike for the past week. It’s been nice switch from the more sleek road bike. When on the road bike I am determined to get to my destination (work/home) in the fastest manner. I crank, pretty hard. However, one can only go so fast when on a single speed and therefore, this forced me to slow down.

It forced me to look more horizontally, much like a real commute should be where one enjoys not only the ride, but the surroundings as well. I tend to mess around more as well, hopping on/off curbs, riding wheelies, etc. I feel more like a kid, careless and enjoying the moment.

I know I’ll switch back over to the speedster at some point, but I’ve enjoyed the change.